Journalists and lawyers on Wednesday held a protest against a seven-year jail term handed down to an Al-Jazeera reporter by Spain this week for collaborating with al Qaeda.
Dozens of reporters, cameramen, photographers, journalists trade union leaders and lawyers' representatives rallied in Islamabad following the conviction of Tayssir Alluni on Monday.
"Tayssir is a journalist not a terrorist," read one banner, as protesters wearing black armbands marched towards the Parliament chanting slogans including: "Do not demonise Muslims".
Later, they handed a memo of protest to the Spanish Embassy in Islamabad. "It's utterly shameful that a so-called civilised country has convicted a journalist who was performing his duty," Islamabad Press Club President Fauzia Shahid said.
Alluni, who is Syrian-born but a naturalised Spaniard, was jailed by a Spanish court at the end of Europe's biggest al Qaeda trial, which began last April.
He interviewed the group's leader Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Accused of acting as a financial courier to the group while in Afghanistan, Alluni, who had faced a maximum nine-year term, said in testimony he was only doing his job as a journalist.
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